Disc storage systems are known in the art and are used to store information for later retrieval. Such disc storage systems include a rotatable disc which carries information thereon. A transducing head is positioned over a surface of the disc while the disc rotates at high speed. The head is carried on a slider which is designed to “fly” just over the surface of the rotating disc, the separation between the slider and the disc being maintained by a film of air (air bearing). The head is used to write information onto the disc or read information from the disc when the slider flies over the disc surface. Such information may be, for example, magnetically or optically encoded on the disc surface.
Increased storage density is becoming increasingly important. One technique known to increase storage density is to decrease the “fly height” of the head. Fly height is defined as the distance between the disc surface and the head or slider during operation of the storage system. A reduced fly height allows information to be written or read back more precisely and such information can be stored in a smaller area (i.e., at a higher density).
Recently, several adaptive fly height control techniques, that address the need for reduced fly height in high-density disc storage systems, have been developed. One fly height control technique includes adjusting the slider fly height by warping a portion of the slider by adding heat to a portion of the slider near the transducer. In such fly height control systems, which are often implemented in a preamplifier (component whose primary function is to amplify data signals detected by the head(s)) of a disc storage system, inadvertently writing data to the disc without heating and preheating the slider to obtain proper target head clearance or fly height can lead to poorly written data, possibly compromising data integrity.
Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art.